Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Kearney for his presentation. I am conscious there are a lot of people in attendance. I will ask three quick questions. First, there is a lot of concern about the recent special education teacher, SET, allocation and the changes in it. Will Mr. Kearney explain the rationale behind the change? I hope he can allay some of the concerns and fears of both individuals and school principals.

As Mr. Kearney pointed out, the investment in special education is €2.7 billion for this year, which is 26% of the Department's overall budget. Is there oversight of how that money is spent? Are the Department and the Government getting value for money for their investment? Is the money invested achieving the aims we want to see achieved for students? How is all of that evaluated?

I often talk about the school inclusion model, which is excellent. Mr. Kearney said it should be expanded nationally. Has an evaluation been carried out of the pilot programme? If it is expanded nationally, will there be issues with appointing staff?

We know the CDNTs have huge issues with employing qualified therapists, be it in occupational therapy, physiotherapy or speech and language therapy. We are talking about the same cohort of staff. Is Ms Walsh talking about it more or less replacing the need for the CDNTs? Does she consider that is where it should go? Would the same staff work in the school and the community, combining the two? There is a huge disconnect between health and education and they need to work together to ensure the best available outcome for the child.